Ephesians 2:1-10. Theological Perspective

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1 Page 1 of 10 Ephesians 2: You were dead through the trespasses and sins in which you once lived, following the course of this world, following the ruler of the power of the air, the spirit that is now at work among 3 those who are disobedient. All of us once lived among them in the passions of our flesh, following the desires of flesh and senses, and we were by nature children of wrath, like everyone 4 else. But God, who is rich in mercy, out of the great love with 5 which he loved us even when we were dead through our trespasses, made us alive together with Christ by grace you 6 have been saved and raised us up with him and seated us 7 with him in the heavenly places in Christ Jesus, so that in the ages to come he might show the immeasurable riches of his 8 grace in kindness toward us in Christ Jesus. For by grace you have been saved through faith, and this is not your own doing; it 9 is the gift of God not the result of works, so that no one may 10 boast. For we are what he has made us, created in Christ Jesus for good works, which God prepared beforehand to be our way of life. Theological Perspective The emphasis on "grace" and "faith" in this passage has made it a favorite with the Reformers. Here we have all the great themes of Reformed theology: a dramatic "before" and "after," the total transformation of the believer, and the emphasis that it is all the "gift of God." Embedded in this passage are a distinctive cosmology, a sense that the resurrected reality promised to the Christian is already realized, and a conception of salvation, which is complete and total. The author starts with the "before." The three features of the before state are sin, Satan, and self. Sin is relatively straightforward. The "before" was a state of "death" due to sin (a classic Pauline theme, even in this deuteropauline text; see Rom. 5:6 and 8:10). Egotism and selfish preoccupation are both so damaging to our being that our spirit is not alive to God and to love. Our actions are so

2 Page 2 of 10 crippling that our God-intended humanity is dead. The second feature, Satan, is anything but straightforward. In this before state, we were following the dynamics of this age, one that was under the control of demons. The "ruler of the power of the air" (v. 2) should be located spatially in the classic Greek-influenced cosmology of this period. The space between the moon and the earth, the Greeks believed, was dominated by demonic activity (according to some writers, for example, Philo, these demons included both benign and evil beings), operating in the arena where the four elements of earth, water, air, and fire were mixed. We should not be embarrassed by this cosmology. Every age will think through its theology in the context of its own particular cosmological understanding. This is both inevitable and inescapable. Although a Newtonian cosmology of the eighteenth century might be an improvement on the Hellenistic one of the first century found in this passage, even its limits were exposed by subsequent discoveries in the new physics. And in the same way, our contemporary cosmology will be improved upon by subsequent generations. We are not going to arrive at a definitive cosmology, so we should accept that the partial cosmology expressed here is the framework for this passage. For some preachers, the concept of an objective force of evil that manipulates human lives is a helpful explanation for some of the more intense forms of evil we see in this world. The devil, perhaps, is a major influence on the psychotic. However, one might also want to reinterpret the devil as any external agency that enslaves us. For the author, this agency is influencing all of us, not simply the psychotic; it is, after all, responsible for the forces in the air. The role the devil plays, for the author, is to describe those cosmological forces that are controlling people. It would be perfectly proper for the preacher to adapt this image to include contemporary forces that control people various addictions or psychological damages from childhood that might still enslave a person, or unjust social realities that do the same thing. The result of all this is the third feature: a damaged self. "All of us once lived in the passions of our flesh" (v. 3) and were "following the desires of flesh and senses." The point is that we were controlled. We were little more than animals, living by crude and base instinct, in a semidead state. The start of verse 4 marks the transition: "But God, who is rich in mercy." And

3 Page 3 of 10 so the "after" part of the passage starts. This semidead state was never how we were intended to be. The great privilege of being human was never meant to be reduced to a state of manipulated control by forces outside our control. We were made for greater things. And God sees all this even when we are dishonoring the gift of creation by our self-absorbed egotism. God's vehicle to bring about the transformation is the work of Christ. For this author (unlike Paul, who tends to have a "still being saved" dynamic), we are already saved. The work is accomplished. We participate in the resurrection now, and are invited to witness to the gift of grace that we have received. For the author the emphasis in this passage is on the "status shift." We have gone from being agents manipulated by numerous forces around us to being rulers with Christ Jesus. Where the "prince of the air" might control the atmosphere, the Christian is sitting "in the heavenly places in Christ Jesus." The hierarchy is deliberate. Our position trumps the position of those evil forces that oppressed us "before," when we were under their tyranny. There is a delightful confidence about our transformed state radiating through this passage. We are already participating in the promise of the eschaton (the end of the age). It is already a certainty in our lives. There is no danger here of our salvation being at peril or being lost by our subsequent actions. The agent of this dramatic change is God. God gets all the credit. We did not deserve the love while we lived life wallowing in our self-preoccupation, being manipulated by the forces around us (v. 5). God provides the agent of our transformation. We are not responsible for the dramatic miracle made possible by Christ's resurrection (v. 6). Nor can we take any credit for the role we will play as witnesses to the kindness shown to us in the ages to come (a clear allusion to the eschatological dimension in v. 7). We are recipients of a remarkable gift from God the gift of absolutely everything. The goal is a transformed life (one created for "good works," v. 10), which God has created in Christ Jesus. We are playing a privileged role in God's plan (v. 10). Ian S. Markham Pastoral Perspective "Biblically speaking, the singular, straightforward issues of ethics and of politics is how to live humanly during the Fall," writes Episcopal social activist

4 Page 4 of 10 William Stringfellow. "Any viable ethic any ethics which manifest and verify hope is both individual and social. It must deal with human decision and action in relation to the other creatures, notably the principalities and powers in the very midst of the conflict, distortion, alienation, disorientation, chaos, decadence of the Fall."[1] Ephesians locates the human sinfulness of the fall within the unfolding history of sin and grace. Human history begins with God's gift of creation of humankind "in Christ Jesus" (v. 10). After creation, humanity falls, dying spiritually to sin and trespasses and following "the ruler of the power of the air" (vv. 1-2). We can only understand the fall in relation to God's original, good intentions for humankind. In turn, the central statement of the pericope, "by grace you have been saved," implies that Christ's gracious redemption of humanity operates only in relation to the fall's reality. "In the ages to come" God intends to make us witnesses of the final "grace in kindness toward" humankind (v. 7). The pericope describes the faithful in an age of transition with one foot in the fall and the other in salvation. The author of Ephesians did not envision the length of this age or the particular cultural influences that would arise during it. Nevertheless, the pericope offers clues to develop a redemptive ethic for the church, "ethics which manifest and verify hope" of salvation amid the fall and particularly the fallen powers. A redemptive ethic first admits that the powers are real. If Christians believe that principalities and powers are figments of the imagination, the fall loses its substance, and Christ's redemption serves no purpose. Because "we are what [God] has made us" (v. 10) all things emanate from and are shaped by our Creator then any substance, idea, or institution that competes with God's title as source and sustainer in effect opposes God. Whether apparently good, bad, or innocuous, impersonal or personal in nature, these forces can become powers. When we claim power for our own, we oppose the true life and power of God. When we do not oppose the powers in our culture, we are complicit in their "conflict, distortion, alienation, disorientation, chaos, [and] decadence." A redemptive ethic declares the specific powers at work in a community. Ephesians specifies not just powers but "the ruler of the power of the air now at work among those who are disobedient" (v. 2). This description was a firstcentury-ce Christian discernment of where powers inhabited the earth. Where do powers exist today? Stringfellow notes that a viable ethic must be both

5 Page 5 of 10 "individual and social." Accordingly, a redemptive ethic recognizes both individual and social powers. Powers can haunt us personally in substance addiction or in the vast, perpetual war economy. The variety of the powers' forms in different communities means that detecting them must be practiced on a local level. A redemptive ethic encourages faithful people to share their stories of how powers influence them. In verse 3, the author of Ephesians shifts from second person "you" language to first person plural "we" to admit that "all of us once lived among them in the passions of our flesh." This admission enables Gentile and Jewish Christians to share their common submission to powers and therefore to unite them in Christ's redemptive work. Christians today come to worship with the common burden of fallenness. dmitting our universal weakness to the powers unites us and paradoxically strengthens us in opposition to powers. Churches, often hosts for 12-step program meetings, can learn from such groups how to share stories of struggle and temptation. As part of our Lenten confessional discipline, our liturgy can encourage people to name aloud or silently specific powers that haunt them or loved ones, inviting members to witness to internal and social struggles that have distorted God's creation. A redemptive ethic calls the church to begin the actual process of critiquing and transforming the powers. As Christ's body, we seek to continue Christ's work of rising from trespasses and sins and being made alive together again. This work begins within the church. God calls the church, a fallen institution consisting of fallen individuals, to recognize first its own capitulation to the powers. How has the church become a power? What can be done to limit its participation as a power? Marva J. Dawn, contemporary Lutheran evangelical scholar, believes that "the word effective has led many churches astray."[2] Effectiveness leans on the power of our work instead of God's power in weakness and leads us right into the lair of the powers. As long as the church makes effectiveness, church growth, and greater influence its goals, it will undermine an ethic of redemption. The church's best bet is to enlist the least and weakest of its membership in redemptive ministry. How can children be prophets to congregations concerning powers? How can teenagers become conscious of their participation in powers before they are tempted to define themselves by the powers? As the powers of media and commerce exert greater and earlier influence on children, offering

6 Page 6 of 10 young people the alternative vision of common weakness in Christ becomes more urgent. While we can oppose the forces, make personal headway against them, and forge our identity as church in relation to them, we cannot defeat them. "No one may boast" that they have overpowered the powers. We are too weak. Not even Christ defeated the powers in life. It is Christ's resurrecting victory over sin and death that manifests and verifies our hope of redemption. The already, but not yet quality of the resurrection is why we return perennially to Lent, unable to avoid Christ's death to the powers but able to foretaste Christ's decisive victory. Adam E. Eckhart Exegetical Perspective The challenges to understanding the historical background of Ephesians begin with the very first verse. Although it claims to be written by Paul, the authorship of the letter has been long disputed. Certainly the style, with its deliberate and ornate sentence structure, is uncharacteristic of Paul's more emotional, trademark staccato. Furthermore, the thematic content of Ephesians elicits strong connections with other Pauline letters, particularly Colossians, in a way that smacks more of imitation than development of thought. A majority of critical scholars, therefore, have suggested that the letter is written by a devotee of Pauline theology at a time after Paul's death. Additionally, since the most reliable manuscripts of the letter omit the words "in Ephesus" from verse 1, it is possible that it was originally a "circular" letter, to be passed around from church to church. In fact, Marcion (second century CE) seemed to know it as the letter "to the Laodiceans." Finally, the letter itself contains precious little background information, and what it does contain may be attributable to a desire to mimic Paul's writings. Given these difficulties, it is more than appropriate to tackle Ephesians 2:1-10 by means of literary analysis rather than attempting to identify a particular historical or situational lens. Even when it speaks by and for itself apart from such contexts, it has much to say. Formally, Ephesians divides rather neatly into five sections: an epistolary greeting (1:1-2), an extended thanksgiving (1:3-23), instruction (2:1-3:21), exhortation (4:1-6:20), and an epistolary conclusion (6:21-24). While there is

7 Page 7 of 10 general agreement that Ephesians 2:1 marks the beginning of the body of the letter, its ties to the preceding section are undeniable. Coupled with its readily identifiable parallels to the structure of 2:11-22, today's text serves as one of the letter's most important transitional elements. Looking back (vv. 1-7). Although the thanksgiving proper is offered specifically for the faith of the addressees (1:15-16), the thanksgiving section as a whole reaches its crescendo in the message of Christ's exaltation to highest authority by the power of God (1:20-23). The contrast comes in 2:1-2, where the author speaks of a rival authority, "the ruler of the power of the air." The language of rulers, powers, and authorities is widespread in both Ephesians and Colossians. If Ephesians 2:2 by itself leaves open the possibility that these powers are of an earthly nature, perhaps with human rulers in view, Ephesians 6:12 removes the ambiguity completely. It is evident that these rival powers are a supernatural nemesis, though already subject to Christ's divine authority (1:21). While it is tempting to confine the rival powers to the "air," Ephesians makes no such restrictions. Just as Christ occupies the "heavenly places," so do "spiritual forces of evil" (6:12). Yet, although the initial state of the addressees is one of submission to the evil authorities, they are not without hope, since these authorities are in turn subject to Christ as the one who has been raised from the dead. The key lies in the author's deliberate evocation of the experiences of Christ (1:20-21) in the experiences of the believer (2:5-7). They were dead in sin, but they have been "made alive together" (v. 5; cf. Col. 2:13) with Christ. Whereas God "raised" (egeiras) Christ from the dead and "seated" (kathisas) him "in the heavenly places" (1:20), the one who has been saved by grace is "raised with him" (synēgeiren) and "seated with him" (synekathisen) "in the heavenly places in Christ" (2:6). Just as Christ's exaltation was for both "this age" and "the age to come" (1:21), so also God will reveal his grace and kindness in "the ages to come" (2:7). Looking forward (vv. 1-7). One of the key structural elements then in Ephesians 2:1-10 is the juxtaposition of former life and new life, a common trope in both Paul and ancient rhetoric. It usually features the terms "once" (pote, "formerly," "at one time") and "now" (nyn), though sometimes these terms are only implied. Such is the situation here, where the term "now" is indeed missing in any juxtaposed sense (cf. Titus 3:3-5), but the once-now dichotomy is made

8 Page 8 of 10 obvious in other ways, particularly in the language of being dead through trespasses (2:1, 5) versus being made alive together with Christ (2:5). The once-now structure of Ephesians 2:1-10 lays the groundwork for one of the letter's most poignant discussions. When looking forward to Ephesians 2:1122, the same structure, with explicit use of both "once" and "now," is evident, but this time the contrast is applied specifically to the Gentile experience. "At one time" the Gentiles were alienated from Israel's covenantal promises (vv ), but "now" they have been brought near by Christ's blood (v. 13). The old era of division and hostility has given way to a new era of peace and reconciliation. Looking inward (vv. 8-10). There is more to today's reading than the initial lengthy sentence. As one of the simplest and most succinct summaries of Pauline theology anywhere, the content of this final portion is well known. Verses 8-10 also force the reader to look both back and ahead, but in a different sense and with a different result. Looking back, the reader is reminded that salvation being made alive again after being dead in sins is a gift that comes only by grace, something that the author felt compelled to interject in verse 5. As Paul argues at length in both Galatians and Romans, any notion that such a result comes from "works" (ergōn, v. 9) is forestalled, and any cause for boasting removed. Looking ahead, however, God has prepared in advance other "works" (ergois, v. 10) for all those who are created in Christ as God's handiworks (poiēina, v. 10, NRSV "what he has made"), culminating in a new way of living (v. 10) that contrasts with the old (v. 2). The result for the readers of Ephesians is a brief but introspective look at what they could not and should not do, while also getting a glimpse of who they are and ought to be. John M. Vonder Bruegge Homiletical Perspective Ephesians 2:1-10 is a central text of the Christian faith, but it is also a challenging one, because Paul writes for a different time, place, and people. Congregants may be unfamiliar with what Paul means by "flesh," "the ruler of the power of the air," "passions of our flesh," "children of wrath," and so forth. A preacher may want to consult a reputable Bible dictionary and spend a few moments clarifying some of these expressions with the congregation. The congregation is also likely to be challenged when Paul writes, "For by

9 Page 9 of 10 grace you have been saved through faith, and this is not your own doing; it is the gift of God not the result of works, so that no one may boast." This is fundamental Pauline theology, but it goes against what many Christians of our time actually believe and practice. Some Christians believe and practice a form of Pelagianism a fearful hope that they are reconciled with God by their good works. Other Christians believe and practice a form of Semi-Pelagianism based on the anxious hope of being reconciled with God by having enough faith.[1] Instead, Paul declares the strong, joyous word that we are saved by faith (not good works) and faith itself is a gift from God (not something we conjure up on our own). Thanks be to God! The imagery of this passage is vivid, and one option for preaching would be to shape a sermon that illustrates that imagery and moves with the shifts in Paul's thinking. Paul leaps from the image of death ("you were dead," v. 1) to life ("made alive together with Christ," v. 5) to sitting with Christ on a throne ("seated with him in the heavenly places in Christ Jesus," v. 6). Wow! Is that who we are? Imagine how the preacher might picture these dramatic changes accomplished for us in Christ. Maybe the sermon begins with a playful, joking illustration of "deathly" existence. But then the preacher turns serious and uses the writings of novelists or real-life stories to paint the living death of stale, meaningless existence. Then, through Christ, we are made alive. So the preacher gives concrete examples of the gladness and meaning of life together with Christ stories of life with new purpose are appropriate here. Then the preacher turns to the amazing image of actually being seated with Christ in the heavenly places. Imagine that on a hard, failure-filled day. Imagine that when feeling excluded. Imagine that while facing the end of earthly life. Christ does more than bring us out of death to life; Christ makes us royalty. Another option, especially appropriate for Lent, is to focus particularly on verses The good news is that we do not need to launch into a frenzy of good works in order to earn God's love and forgiveness. Nor do we need to engage in the endless navel gazing of asking, "Do I believe? Do I really believe? Am I saved? Am I really saved?" Not at all. "For by grace you have been saved through faith, and this is not your own doing; it is the gift of God not the result of works, so that no one may boast." The good news is that faith is a gift from God and grace is a gift from God given through Jesus Christ. But before we decide that the Christian life simply means relaxing by the

10 Page 10 of 10 swimming pool, sipping drinks with little umbrellas jutting out the top, Paul reminds us of the second part of the equation: "For we are what he has made us, created in Christ Jesus for good works, which God prepared beforehand to be our way of life." Yes, we are saved by grace through faith. No, we do not rely on good works to be saved. But we are what God has made us people "created in Christ Jesus for good works." So good works are now transformed. Instead of being frantic means for trying to save ourselves, good works are the blessed opportunity for us to live out the lives we were destined to live. Good works are expressions of Christ alive in us ministering to the world. Good works are demonstrations of our present reality and future; we are God's royal children exercising God's dominion of love in the world. Yet another option for preaching on this text would be to explore the difference between our old, dead life living in "the passions of our flesh, following the desires of flesh and senses, and we were by nature children of wrath" and our new life "alive together with Christ." When Paul talks about "the passions of our flesh," maybe we imagine a scandalous affair, or a salacious Internet site, or unbridled lust. We hear a voice whispering, "Psst! Hey you!" "Who, me?" "Yeah, you. Come on in and experience 'the passions of our flesh.'" Certainly Paul is concerned about irresponsible sexual behavior, but "the passions of our flesh" means so much more. It means living a life of rebellion against God, in the idolatry of placing ultimate trust in anyone or anything other than God. It can be demonstrated in our being greedy, rather than generously sharing time, abilities, and money. It can be seen in pride about physical appearance, in gluttony, in obsession with work, in gossip, in hatred, and in laziness. "Passions of our flesh" refers not just to what we do as individuals, but to what we do corporately. It can apply to our complicity in poverty, war, unfair conditions for the poor, and in political choices that make life easier for us but bring hurt to the weak and persons on the margins of society. Instead, we are to live out who we truly are, "alive with Christ," following his example of love and placing our ultimate trust in God through Christ. Jeff Paschal